Introduction to VLSI RTL Designs

Abstract

For a moment, think of all the devices you use in your daily life e.g. mobile phone, computer, TV, car, washing machine, refrigerator, ovens and almost everything, even a smart card, credit card or a debit card. All these have one thing in common and that is, one or more semiconductor chips, also known as Integrated Circuits (IC ). An IC comprises of millions of transistors etched on a small piece (say 10 mm x 10 mm) of doped silicon (a widely used semiconductor) with appropriate interconnections between them depending upon the desired functionality. Just compare this design complexity with the era of vacuum tubes where one vacuum tube was used to do the same functionality of a single transistor. Some of you may very well have seen the old age radio receiver box back where five or six such vacuum tubes could be seen lighting. Naturally, even that would be considered complex in those days relative to the technology and tools available in those times. All the design and manufacturing used to be mostly manual.